British organist, harpsichordist, pianist, and conductor Ian Watson is a native of Wooburn Common, Buckinghamshire. At 14 he attended the Royal Academy of Music on a scholarship, and later studied with Flor Peeters in Belgium. He held several positions in London, playing organ at St. Margaret's, Westminster and St. Marylebone Parish Church, and serving as director of music at St. James's, Piccadilly. As a concert artist, Watson has performed with many orchestras, among them the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and the Academy of Ancient Music, and he toured internationally with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Watson has also performed as an accompanist, notably with Renée Fleming, and he played and conducted a series of Mozart's piano concertos with the Dalarna Sinfonietta in Sweden. He became artistic director of the Arcadia Players in 2003, and in 2004 he led the Monteverdi Choir in a performance of Monteverdi's Vespro della Beata Vergine in San Marco, Venice. Watson is also active as the principal guest conductor of the Karlsbad Baroque in Sweden. He has recorded for Coro, Simax, Virgin Classics, and Hyperion. ~ Blair Sanderson